The invention relates generally to binoculars having ocular abridgements connected to each other through a bridge and activated through a center drive.
The binoculars according to the invention include a bridge connecting a pair of oculars that may be positioned at a fixed distance corresponding to the distance between the eyes of a user. Preferably, they are made adjustable to various individual positions by means of a hinge. Additionally, these binoculars allow normal focus control for persons wearing glasses or persons with normal eyesight through a center drive. One or both oculars may be fitted with a diopter focusing mount intended for persons with glasses who do not use glasses when using binoculars. The binoculars according to the invention are therefore adaptable to a large extent to the requirements of a broad range of people.
The center drive of the binoculars according to the invention are conventional and therefore of a practical design. The knurled knob may be manufactured as a knurled wheel, knurled-head screw or knurled roller. A knurled roller can be placed in the hinge, whereas knurled wheels or knurled disks may be placed above or below the bridge. Using these various configurations, a variety of requirements can be fulfilled.
The binoculars of the present invention makes use of features of known binoculars, particularly a center drive and a diopter focusing mount. The center drive can be made in the form of a sharp-focusing rocker. These types of binoculars have the advantage that they can be adjusted individually for each user. This is carried out in a known way by adjusting the binoculars for a certain large distance, say 150 meters, taking into consideration the depth of focus. This diopter focusing is carried out by the user, who in general turns a diopter ring near one or both oculars. When this adjustment is made any depth of focus can be achieved by turning the center drive, without the user having to put on his glasses.
It is a disadvantage that the adjustment of binoculars poses considerable individual problems for the eyes of the individual user, whereby many users are unable to properly use binoculars.
Therefore, attempts have been made to make the adjustment of binoculars easier to carry out for the user. One embodiment of such binoculars having ease of adjustment makes use of individual adjustment of each ocular. The focusing adjustment is carried out by turning a left or right diopter ring, that at the same time takes care of the adjustment for distance. The disadvantage of this type of binoculars is that the once adjusted focusing depth can only be changed by adjusting each of the oculars. This lengthens the time required to change the depth focus adjustment. In practice, this makes adjustment of the binoculars difficult which lengthens the time required to adjust the binoculars.
Another attempt to make the adjustment of the depth of focus easier for the user is to provide the binoculars with a Fix(ed)-Focus-Adjustment. In this type of binoculars, the optical system of the binoculars has a fixed setting of approximately 70 to 80 meters. Is therefore not possible to change the setting. This type of binoculars can be used without any adjustments by persons with 20/20 vision or persons wearing glasses, and objects in the focus range appear clear at a distance from 14 meters to 80 meters. The disadvantage of the fixed-focus-adjustment of the depth focusing to, say 80 meters, is that observation at infinity does not allow distortionless detail focusing, and it relies on the accommodation power of the user's eye itself. This accommodation of the user's eye leads to overstressing, which can lead to headaches for the viewer. Also, the already short range of the binoculars can be shortened to only about 14 meters, because otherwise flawless detail focusing cannot be obtained. In addition, users with eye defects in one or both eyes cannot use this type of binoculars without an optical support, that is to say, these binoculars cannot be used without glasses.
The invention has as its goal to create binoculars, that avoid incorrect adjustments by the user and exclude to a large extent the disadvantages described above.
This goal is achieved by the binoculars of the present invention with characteristics according to the claims.